‘Net-zero energy buildings a necessity for Karachi’

The city’s premier agency working towards a clean environment, Shehri, hosted a seminar on Friday on the need for net-zero energy buildings.

The technical seminar was addressed by electrical engineers, environmental experts, and officials from the relevant government departments. A net-zero energy building is one that generates enough energy from alternate sources of energy through its own resources.

Engineer Pervez Sadiq highlighted the importance of the sources and said that it was instrumental in bringing down carbon emissions. He said that in 2013 carbon emissions were to the volume of 0.84 ton per annum while in 2017, they were one ton per annum. In 2030, he said, they could touch 1.6 tons per annum.

Forty percent of energy generated, he said, was used by buildings. China, he said, had built net-zero energy buildings by 2009 and India by 2014.

Engineer Rizwan Siddiqui from the NED University of Engineering and Technology said that net-zero energy buildings made environmental sense as they reduced the carbon footprints in the form of greenhouse gases.

He said that the cost of construction of an energy-efficient building may be 5-20 percent more but the energy costs went down by 30-40 percent in 30-35 years of the life cycle. He said that there was a 10-15 percent overall cost saving potential over 10 years.

In reply to a question, he said the most practical step was to utilise daylight and clean the air traffic. Engineer Ejaz Ahad said that solutions for climate change were more ethical than technical. The world, he said, was undergoing a paradigm shift. “We have been wasteful of our resources.” 

He sounded optimistic when he said that by 2020 we would have electric cars whereby cost and demand for fossil fuels would drop, which in turn would mean less pollution. Asghar Dawar from the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) said that unfortunately, officials of the SBCA had been callous and had been giving permission for structures that were not supposed to be built. 

He cited the case of Khalid Bin Walid Road where, he said, 25 high-rises were under construction while 13 were already there. He said that if any time an underground gutter boiled over, it would be impossible to walk on the thoroughfare.

In reply to a question, he agreed that Karachi was in the earthquake-prone zone and that was why they were soon coming up with legislation for builders to come up with earthquake-proof buildings. He hailed the Supreme Court order restricting construction of buildings to ground-plus-two.

Engineer Rashid Hussain Qazi, deputy secretary of Alternate Energy, said that before executing a project, we must consult the people who are going to be affected. People, he said, had to be convinced about the efficacy of energy-efficient structures.

Faisal Ahmed from K-Electric who also spoke was bombarded with questions and complaints about the functioning of the entity.

A visibly irate participant cornered him with the question as to why all the copper wires were being substituted with those made of aluminium whereas copper ones were more efficient. To this, he agreed, but said that copper wires were being stolen on a very large scale and the K-Electric was incurring losses. Other subscribers came up with complaints about the behaviour of the power supply company’s personnel and their inefficiency.

Engineer Ainul Abedin said that the basic requirement for net-zero energy buildings was that we should not be wasteful as energy was a finite source. “There are some who don’t get power for even two hours a day. So in order to make energy available to the maximum number of people, we have to conserve it on a very large scale.”

Concluding, Amber Alibhai, general secretary of Shehri, said that unbridled commercialisation had ravaged Karachi. “If we don’t change the way we are living, Karachi will soon become unliveable.”